The invention relates to window stickers for selling motor vehicles. One form of window sticker common in today's market is a sticker having a bond sheet with a water reactive starch based adhesive coating covering the entire sheet. The adhesive is wetted, and applied to a motor vehicle window. While this type of sticker is economical, it must be scraped from the window at the time of auto purchase, leaving adhesive residue on the window's surface, and completely destroying the label.
Another type of commonly used window sticker comprises a bond face sheet fully coated with a pressure sensitive removable adhesive adhered to a printed release liner, the printed release liner containing the necessary pricing and fuel economy information. By removing the border of the release liner, the label is affixed to the inside of a car window. This construction allows the dealer to remove the entire label, and separate the two plies, so that the customer may retain the printed release sheet for future reference. However, this type of form is expensive, leaves an adhesive residue on the window surface, yellows at the exposed adhesive areas, delaminates from the window at high temperatures, and is easily ripped or removed from the window when the window is rolled open.
The present invention in one embodiment includes a window sticker with a removable border, a window sticker backing with an adhesive coating, and a separable record sheet. This invention overcomes the disadvantages discussed above, and additionally allows easy production of the window sticker utilizing continuous or sheet fed laser printers. According to the present invention, a sticker is provided that may be constructed simply and relatively inexpensively from bond paper, cleanly removed from a window with no adhesive residue remaining on the window or sticker, removed integrally so that the sticker may be retained by the customer as a receipt and a separate record sheet may be retained by the car dealer.
According to one aspect of the present invention, a window sticker composition is provided which comprises the following elements: A front sheet of opaque material having first and second faces. The front sheet includes a center window sticker surrounded by a removable border section. Indicia is printed on the first face of the center window sticker. Attached to the second face of the front sheet is a backing sheet having first and second faces wherein the first face is coated with a repositional adhesive. This repositional adhesive of the backing releasably adheres to a release coating on the second face of the front sheet. A center section of the second face of the backing sheet also may have printed indicia. A recording sheet is attached to the second face of the backing sheet.
The first face of the front sheet and possibly the second face of the backing sheet preferably comprises a bond paper sheet, and the indicia includes fixed word indicia relating to fuel economy, price and warranty information for a motor vehicle, and also includes variable numerical indicia corresponding to and adjacent the fuel economy, price and warranty word indicia. The recording sheet may contain identical printed indicia and carbonless contact ink for recording additional information imprinted onto the front sheet, such information regarding the actual sale of the vehicle.
The window sticker composition may be formed in a continuous dual-ply web of opaque material (e.g. bond paper) with a backing both elongated in a first direction, with a record sheet web attached to the backing. The recording sheet may be attached with a glue strip to the dual-ply web of the front and backing sheets. Means defining lines of weakness (e.g. perforations) are provided in a second direction, perpendicular to the first direction, to separate the webs into individual sheet sticker compositions, with means defining tractor drive openings in the web adjacent first and second opposite edges extending in the first direction.
In use of the window stickers, the border of the front sheet is peeled from the backing to expose a border section of repositional adhesive on the backing sheet surrounding, at least partially, the center window sticker of the front sheet. The exposed repositional adhesive of a border section of the backing is brought into contact with the inside surface of a motor vehicle window to hold the window sticker in place. The backing and window sticker may be removed from the window and repositioned as desired. Once the motor vehicle is sold, the entire window sticker and backing is removed from the motor vehicle, leaving no adhesive residue on the window. Additional information may be added to the front sheet such as a signature, and that information copied on the recording sheet attached to the backing. The backing may then be peeled from the window sticker which may be maintained by a customer as a receipt and the backing is discarded. Alternatively, a backing border may be removed while a backing center section with indicia remains permanently adhered to the window sticker. In addition, the recording sheet may be peeled from the backing and retained by the auto dealer.
It is the primary object of the present invention to provide a versatile, simple, economical, and advantageous window sticker and recording sheet pricing and fuel economy information. This and other objects of the invention will become clear from an inspection of the detailed description of invention, and from the appended claims.